Gubernatorial nominee Dan Maes tapped a former state lawmaker with a centrist streak as his running mate Tuesday, hoping to fill a dearth of governmental experience on the GOP ticket.

Greeley Republican Tambor Williams spent eight years in the state House starting in 1997 and led the Department of Regulatory Agencies for two years after being appointed by Gov. Bill Owens in 2004.

While she has run afoul of conservative groups in the past, Maes and Williams defended her record on guns, abortion rights and fiscal issues — and the would-be lieutenant governor credited Tea Party enthusiasm with launching her back into politics.

Maes lauded his pick as an “establishment conservative” who earned her chops “serving in the trenches.”

“I have to be humble enough before God and say I know what I lack, and what I lack is Tambor Williams,” Maes told a crowd of reporters, family and friends at his Englewood headquarters. “I have not sat in committees and handled legislation. She has done all of that.”

The running mates met 16 months ago, when Maes approached Williams’ husband, Jim Eckersley, about help reaching out to voters in northern Colorado. The couple hosts Republican breakfasts in the area.

Williams said she’s been a supporter ever since.

Maes and Williams have not yet landed on the same page when it comes to a number of social and fiscal issues.

At the announcement Tuesday, Williams was at a loss to explain how Maes’ plan to cut thousands of state employees to balance the budget would work, nor did she join in her running mate’s skepticism of Denver’s bike-share program.

While Maes rails against the voter-approved temporary suspension of some Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights provisions, Williams supported Referendums C and D in combination in 2005. She clarified her position Tuesday, saying that the passage of Referendum C alone gave lawmakers an unfortunate free pass to spend at will without ensuring the state would fund critical transportation projects.

And Williams — who supports abortion only in cases of rape, incest or when a mother’s life is endangered — declined to say whether she agreed with Maes’ pledge to yank state funding for Planned Parenthood if elected.

“We have not talked in great depth about specific issues. I guess I just can’t answer that for you now,” she said.

In 1999 she joined nine other Republican female lawmakers in asking Owens to protect Planned Parenthood funding.

Maes said the pair would craft a more universal message in the coming week.

“It is my policy and my positions . . . that will drive the agenda,” he said. “I see her being an adviser and a go-to person on procedural issues, legislative issues; and I also see her as a bridge to that traditional Republican audience that has a enormous amount of respect for her.”

Former state Senate President and vocal social conservative John Andrews lauded Maes’ decision and said that the “coalition ticket” is the mark of a viable candidate.

“She’s just a little more centrist,” he said. “But Colorado Republicans are tired of being in the wilderness. They’re done with circular firing squads.”

During her time in the legislature, Williams’ votes on guns and abortion drew the ire of social conservative groups.

The politically active and often outspoken Rocky Mountain Gun Owners group called her “cunning, deceitful, unloyal” and “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” at the time for her support of a concealed-carry law that required registering and getting permits for weapons.

The National Rifle Association, meanwhile, gave her near perfect marks as a lawmaker, and she and her husband lead the Northern Colorado branch of Friends of the NRA.

Williams also voted to send a bill banning partial-birth abortions back to a committee, where it eventually died.

On Tuesday, she said the bill was unconstitutional and needed to be redrafted, and she pointed out that she sought to require young women seeking abortions to notify their parents before the procedure.

She chalks up the decade-old criticism of her social conservative bona fides to typical primary attacks.

“I don’t think this is the year that it’s on the public’s mind,” Williams said. “What the public cares about are jobs and the economy and getting the government back on track.”

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